You've probably noticed that I haven't posted much this week. Well, there was a reason for that....rain! It rained and it rained, then it rained some more. Last weekend we were hit with the remnants from Hurricane Gustav. We had around 5" last week and then this weekend it started raining a bit on Thurs and then poured rain pretty much from Fri until yesterday. I think we ended up with another 7-8". Some of that were the leftovers from Hurricane Ike. Thankfully we didn't get the wind that sometimes comes with the hurricane. Just got the rain. Well, since it finally stopped, Livie and I decided to go on a bit of a scavenger hunt, looking for the worst flooded areas. I knew a few good places to look, since it was nearly flooded yesterday as we drove to church. In fact, as we drove to church, the road we usually take was nearly covered in water. It's down by the marina and the water was about 2" from the edge of the road. When we left church, the road was closed due to flooding. I went there today to look and boy, is it flooded! It the picture above with the "do not enter" barricade in front of it. For those who don't know, Ottawa is smack dab between 2 large rivers - the Fox River and the Illinois River. So, if we get a lot of rain, there's usually flooding. Because we got so much rain over the past couple of weeks and the fact that such a large area of IL was covered, the rainwaters have made the rivers particularly high. Higher than it's been in a long time, so I've been told. As Livie and I walked around, we found we weren't the only ones curious about the flooding. There were lots of people out and about - taking pictures, pointing, talking. It was all very interesting.
The first picture is of Livie and I - the Flood Finders!! The next picture shows the river by us here in Marseilles. It's the Fox River and it peaked last night I guess. You can see where the water is on the pillars of the bridge. It's usually much, much lower than that. You can see Livie pointing at the water in the next one. She thought it was all really cool. We're standing by the Middle East War Memorial in town. It's the only nice thing in our town actually. It's a beautiful tribute. In the pictures to follow, you'll see the baseball diamond is completely submerged. Then the picture I mentioned above where the road is completely covered. There are a few that are covered in other parts of the city too (Ottawa, that is). The one that Livie is standing in, is in front of the YMCA. That's where we went for Noah's t-ball. The whole parking lot is flooded and you can kind of make out the sandbags piled in front of the door. The walkway we're on is called "The Riverwalk" and every day after t-ball, we'd walk down and look for turtles. That probably won't happen for another week or so. Only the first few feet by our church is above water. Our church by the way, is right next door to the YMCA. Thankfully we're up the enbankment though, so there's no flooding in there. Livie really wanted to splash, so every place we went where we could reach the water, I let her tap her feet in a few inches. Since the rivers are going by so quickly though, I wouldn't let her go more than that. The next few pictures are of Allen Park which is on the Illinois River. It's supposed to peak this afternoon. Those things sticking out of the water are the tops of slides and pavilions. Last, but not least, is the Fox River by the High School. It's nearly at the bottom of the bridge, it's so high. The high school is surrounded by both the Fox and the Illinois. It's right where they meet, so the water is especially high in that area and moving by really quickly. I wouldn't let Livie go down and stomp around down there. It wasn't safe. So, I let her throw rocks in instead. She liked that. You can see in the background the brick building. That's the high school. One or two more days of rain would've brought the river above those levees and flooded the school. You can see in the background them filling sandbags to prevent the river from coming up higher on the other side of the bridge. It's all pretty crazy. I'm anxious for Madie and Noah to get out of school to show them as well. We drove by a couple places yesterday after church, but it was raining so hard, we didn't let them out of the van. I know they'd love to walk down by the Y to see it there. But, Livie and I had fun. She loved watching the water and looking for more places to check out. I know I posted a lot of pictures. Hope I haven't bored you with it all. But, those who have been here will probably recognize the places in the pictures and will be able to see how high the water has really gotten. It's pretty unreal!
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